Jesus Skeptic - Jesus, You, and Experiential Evidence, Part 2

Have you ever had an experience change your opinion or attitude on something. Thought you knew all the facts considered every angle to you personally went through a situation that completely changed your mind will join me as we hear two powerful stories of people who thought they had everything in their lives figured out until they didn't.

You're not going to miss this. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with shipping. As many of you know chips are vital to this daily discipleship program, but for the series is passed the mic to his longtime friend John Dickerson John sleep pastorate collection point Christian church is also an award-winning investigative journalist in just a minute John will pick up where he left off last time series Jesus skeptic as a quick reminder if you miss any portion of this program. Always catch up to the Chip Ingram map that hears John with the second half of this talk Jesus you and experiential evidence.

Could Jesus give you a piece of peace that is with you and your young years when you're looking for a spouse or those early fulfillment things of the pieces with you in your retirement years when you're searching for identity and purpose of peace. That's with you even when you face the end of your life will never know unless you try it. I want to tell you two stories true stories of people who gave everything they had in the pursuit of fulfillment and as a reporter and a journalist. I had a front row seat to both of these stories now when I would get assigned a profile like this at the point I was at in my career as a journalist I would spend months, sometimes 3 to 6 months working on one story was very in-depth reporting. So when I was assigned a profile on a person.

I kid you not I would visit their childhood home. I would talk to friends they had in high school. Talk to their ex-wives. I would talk to their business partners to their neighbors. I want a 360� view. I had people I profile where I would sleep on the couch in their living room so that I can document their morning routine. That's how messed up of a workaholic. I was, but I found these two different guys who were both seeking fulfillment as much as you ever could. The first is a man named Scott Coles. Scott is a man who built a fortune of nearly $1 billion of you need a math refresher you hear so much billion trillion million stuff in the news. What is it all mean anymore. Okay, here's a billion eyesight. Imagine for a moment that I give you $1 million today. You're welcome.

Come back next week. Okay $1 million. Multiply that by �100 set for multiple lifetimes now multiply that by 10 now you're talking about $1 billion at age 42, Scott Coles had amassed a fortune of $1 billion. He had homes in Phoenix and Aspen in San Diego. Most of these homes were compounds really in Phoenix, for example, that the wealthiest area is called Camelback Mountain and Scott would buy up neighboring mansions on Camelback Mountain and he would tear them down so that he couldn't tell that he did build an 18 hole golf course in his front yard. I saw Scott Coles garage, Rolls-Royce, Bentley Ferrari, I'm talking vintage Ferrari. My goodness he had a beautiful wife, yet healthy children and then as they got into their early 40s and he wanted a more beautiful wife.

He went to Las Vegas and he picked the prettiest showgirl that he could find and he divorced his wife and he married the prettiest girl he could find anything that a person would ever think that might make me happy.

That could make me happy. He did it. He tried it he amassed it, and at age 42 in the prime of his life with beautiful healthy kids having everything that so many people think brings joy.

Scott Coles ended his own life intentionally just couldn't go on living.

And as I interviewed his kids and his ex-wife and his high school friends and they said he was a nice guy. He was a caring guy.

He was a generous guy led me to this conclusion, many roads marked fulfillment turn out to be life devouring dead ends or worse drop-offs. That's why my heart for you in this series. Even if you don't believe in God, yet is this be intentional about the currents that you place yourself in in life and be random about it them to step into the currents that are closest to you. Look at where the current leads other people and I remember I was still driving the press cars at that time and thinking oh my goodness. If that guy got all those things and felt like life wasn't worth living. And I probably shouldn't get in the current of thinking that material things will bring me ultimate fulfillment because I get a fraction of a bag I had if that didn't work for him clearly not gonna work for me. I've never been the same since seeing first hand.

A man who had everything that people would think brings happiness early some sense of peace, but he was so hopeless that he ended his own life. What a tragedy it led me to ask about my life. What I really hoping will carry me to fulfillment. Maybe this'll be a life defining moment for you wherever you are in your journey to just zoom out from social media and family drama and workplace drama and everything else in the news and just think about your life, what are you what current. Are you in. What do you think will bring fulfillment, because we all think something will. But we rarely sit down to actually write it out if you were to write it out. You might be surprised as I was wrestling with this for my own life that having seen the intellectual evidence of Jesus, and having seen followers of Jesus changing the world. I profile another person who had given everything and The Pursuit of Happyness and fulfillment. This guy had a totally different life Grammy-winning musician. I spent about three months interviewing him and his daughter during that time is videos music videos were still playing on MTV. Yet millions of dollars in the bank. He had had investments all around California but he described to me that his life had been completely miserable. In fact, while I was profiling him and spending that time with them. He described to me in detail different times where he and his wife were both high on mass, they would get into these violent physical altercations while they were under the influence of that drug. He described me a time where he looked down at his knuckles and he saw his wife's blood on his own knuckles because they had been fighting so aggressively he described another time were a number of famous musicians and artists to come over to his house for a huge party and there was a lot of drugs and a lot of pleasure. He woke up in the morning and he went out to the pool and his two-year-old daughter was curled up on a towel right by the edge of the pool and she had slept there all night, and even through the drug brokenness of his mind he just realized my life is a mess, but he had gotten there by going after Fain getting it fortune getting it achievement getting it possessions God it experiences. He tried it all and just let him lower and lower into this darkness there is a key moment in Brian's life story where on Easter Sunday morning. He walked into a church a lot like this, near Bakersfield, California. His brain still half functioning from drug addiction broken in life, from the pursuit of fulfillment currents that had beaten him up. He doesn't remember everything from that Easter message, but he remembers these words of Jesus were Jesus says to you and me come to me all of you who are weary all of you who are burdened. I will give you rest.

The claim from the guy who claims to be God, the guy who claimed to knit you together in your mother's womb, and here's why.

Brian story has such a different ending than Scott Coles story for Scott Coles never gave Jesus a try.

All the people I talked to, he just never considered he ridiculed it from the riverbanks like I used to do, but he never tried it for himself.

Brian said have tried everything else. Mice will try this Jesus thing, and on that Easter Sunday, he chose to give it a try.

And he called out a prayer, God of you there.

I believe Jesus if you're there I need this you say you give rest to the weary. You help the bird and if you're there I need and only did with that mean that childlike mentality to that brain confused by drugs to God if you're there I want your help Jesus if this is true, I need you in my life and part of Brian story is that then within about two months after having been a drug addict really since high school. You'd started with marijuana in high school and it just kept leading them deeper and deeper all the way to heroin and meth that drug addicts for more than 10 years within three months he was sober. That's the part as a journalist by her that I thought now that does not happen. I'm gonna spend three months with this guy and I'm gonna find out the truth and the truth as I hung out with Brian and his daughter who is in late elementary at that time was that he had totally transformed that he had changed from the inside out. It intentionally given away a lot of the wealth he didn't need that stuff anymore. Brian Welch found in Jesus, something that he couldn't find anywhere else. And I saw firsthand with my own eyes.

What a contrast from the billionaire who didn't have Jesus and ended up taking his own life.

One day Brian and I were at a PF Chang's in Scottsdale, Arizona, and he looked across the table at me and this is what he said I had my tape recorder rolling. He said this, I had $3 million in cash sitting in the bank. All the cars I wanted a $200,000 pool. I don't know how that's even possible. But apparently it is Nanny's the nicest house real estate in California and I was miserable.

I just think about that for a moment. Nothing wrong with a $200,000 pool of you have the money and you want to spend it that way. But if you think it's going to bring you fulfillment be smart enough to look at other people who've gone down that current what a shame it would be to work your entire life and get into your 60s or 70s or 80s and look back and be like. I gave everything I only got a fraction of what these other guys got I could've known from the beginning that wasn't going to fulfill me but I love what Brian said after says.

Then I found God and was like this is all I've ever wanted, didn't find what I was looking for in all that stuff you know if you're seeking fulfillment and interest. You're the kind of person who Jesus invites and helps and I want to be clear is nothing wrong with these other things that can fulfill to a level God wants you to have a rich and full life. But the deepest fulfillment is in found in getting outside things and bring them in its found in connecting to the creator of the universe internally and then having a source of joy and fulfillment that bubbles up from with in through all the different seasons of life through all the economic ups and downs and relational ups and downs and I just wonder where have you been exhausted in your hunt for fulfillment. Where have you maybe been let down in your quest or your search for fulfillment. Where has your soul been full of anxiety rather than rest. You can come to Jesus today in the same simple way that Brian Welch did on that Easter Sunday want to tell you about just one other person. This is a skeptic and is a totally different personality profile because you might be listening and thinking okay John interesting stories helpful to know, but I really don't expect millions of dollars or worldwide fame to make me happy. Maybe you're more like me. Those things have never been options for me okay but you know I'm a pretty good guy. Part of my story before I became a fully devoted follower of Jesus letting go on some drug bands I you know, graduated from college early and I worked hard and I did all the right things but I found that still I was lacking something as to wherever you find yourself on that spectrum of what you're pursuing for fulfillment. I found the same thing to be true that I found in Jesus, something that's not available anywhere else in this next I want to talk to you about is a person who maybe you can relate to because he was a good guy.

He kept most of the rules wasn't addicted to anything even believe that Jesus existed affected seen Jesus with his own eyes, but this whole thing that Jesus is God in meet his deepest needs. He was not buying that he was a skeptic and that's a fact. This guy got so annoyed with Jesus claiming to be God that he would make fun of Christians he would even harm Christians. He would go around and mess with the Christians this guy his name was Saul, but eventually he would have an encounter with Jesus were Jesus showed himself to be God, in its sole transformed him that he then became a follower of Jesus. He then went around telling everyone even when he would get imprisoned for it or whip for it or beaten for it. Jesus is God. Jesus is the fulfillment that you seek. And here's how we put it in one of his letters, which is recorded in the New Testament. He says in Romans 116 I am not ashamed of the gospel. What's the gospel. Very simply, it is the good news that the God who made you love you that he came into this world is the person of Jesus, and he willingly died on the cross to pay the penalty for your mistakes and mine and that you can be made right with God, not by doing a bunch of good things, but by simply believing and admitting your need that you need. Jesus help if you believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be saved.

That's the gospel in this guy who was a skeptic, a hardened skeptic and who hated Christians would become so transformed they were.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why not because it's the power of God. That's what I found in my life.

The good news of Jesus connects you to the actual power of God. You can have the power of God in your life and it's a power that leads to salvation so you know when your body dies, you're gonna spend eternity in heaven with God. But not only that, it leads to freedom in this life and fulfillment in this past this current it's available to everyone. God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that whoever believes in him will be saved. It's available to you today but the question for you is this.

Will you try it when you get in the current because it brings salvation to everyone who believes. From my own experience I would say and I think from Saul, the skeptics experience your belief does not have to start out as a perfectly mature, fully formed belief is not how were born right will not be the weirdest thing but you looking on Instagram and some mom has a baby and she's holding this like 48-year-old dude with a beard right like when we start as babies and we grow and we mature.

You don't have to have every question about you know the history of the universe and every book of the Bible, you have to have all that stuff answered to say God I believe that you love me and you made me. I want this fulfillment. I want this relationship with you.

You start there. Then he feeds you and he grows you that's been my experience anyway.

Jesus invites you to find fulfillment and rest in him invite you to find something that you can't find anywhere else.

That's why love that verse, Jeremiah 29. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart, so if you're here and you're considering what do I believe or what am I looking to to fulfillment in life. If you maybe just been sampling the things that are around you, rather than being intentional to say where will this path take me. Have you forgotten Jesus in your search for fulfillment maybe raises a Christian you men coming to church, Christian, but if he ever actually said this is what I'm putting my my faith into fulfillment. If he ever really tried for your fulfillment and more importantly for your eternal life. Maybe you're here and you're a believer and you just needed this reminder today, that all those other things and they might not be bad things, but they're not going to fulfill you the way that Jesus can, I've noticed that most of the people who are the most critical of Jesus have never tried it. I was there for a while on those riverbanks making fun of the people in the current. But once I actually tried it, this claim of Jesus, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. It turns out to be true, but you gotta come to him. You gotta give them a try. The fulfillment of Jesus is found in the space between religion and relationship that's really what was my journey I grew up with a religious teaching about Jesus and then II went full-circle away from it and I studied just Jesus himself, and I came all the way back I want to encourage you it if you've cast off Jesus because of his followers to look at him himself.

Look at his words for yourself by simply praying to him guy I want to find my fulfillment and show me what to do with my life. Show me which path to catch me up in your current severe listening to this and you're feeling like you want give Jesus a try want to share a promise that God gives to you and he says if you seek me you will find me.

If you search with all your heart and I just want to encourage you today. Search for God with all your heart, no matter what you're going through, no matter what's going on in your life today you can find God.

If you will search for him with all your heart and in fact I'd love to lead you in a prayer the words of this prayer are not magical but what God describes as a movement of our heart to receive the gift of salvation. It's a free gift.

You don't have to earn it. You can't earn it.

You don't have to pay for.

In fact, Scripture tells us that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. If you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, and I just want to lead you in a prayer where you can say to God that you want Jesus to be your savior. So if that's you right now.

Would you just from your heart. Repeat these words after me not to me or anyone else but to God saying Jesus, I believe you're the one true God. Jesus, I believe you died on the cross for my sins, and you rose from the debt. Jesus, I know I've sinned. I know I've fallen short, and I ask you to forgive my sins. I ask you to adopt me into the family of God. Jesus. I receive your forgiveness and I now want to live as your son or your daughter Jesus fill me with your spirit. Help me to live a new life.

If you've prayed that today God says that you've been transferred from a kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. He says that the chains of sin that enslaved you have been broken and he says that you know for sure that you have eternal life in heaven. You've a new identity, a new name as you have so much to discover now as a loved and adopted child of the living God.

And I'm so proud of you. If you've prayed that today if you prayed with John, we'd love to put a resource in your hands.

It's called starting out right and it's absolutely free.

This tool will help you gain a clear biblical understanding of what it means to put your faith in Jesus and that's her whole mission. Living on the Edge helping Christians really live like Christians. So let us help you get started in your faith journey. You can request this resource by calling us at AAA 333-6003 or by visiting a LivingontheEdge.org and clicking on the new believers, but that's LivingontheEdge.org or call AAA 83336003. Which of joins me in studio now and Chip. I'm sure we all know someone who skeptical or even a bit hostile towards Christianity of the claims of the Bible, how can the series and especially Jones book opus better defend our faith will Dave John comes from a background actually where I was a very religious background and and pretty rigid in some ways and he actually went through his own season. I don't know if I can believe all this and he happens to be very smart decided to take up a life as a journalist and actually won the Brokaw award very prestigious of the top investigative journalist in America and it was on that journey that John decided I'm not gonna take other people's word for things and so first-hand research is he doesn't look at the quotes in the back of books he goes and reads the very first-hand research or he goes to the actual places and so I found this young friend who is a millennial who was very, very smart, who done a lot of research and what I realized was as I listen to the world that I'm in and I I go to church with a lot of very very young people and and I see their worldview. I recognized John basically is speaking their language and answering the questions that they have in some of our history is just completely buried or part of what the Bible says has been really, what can I say is been tilted in ways and bent in ways to make it sound very ugly and very unlike Jesus and so my heart's desire was that people would get to know someone who is smart, whose academic who is an absolutely committed Christian who did the first-hand research and I will guarantee this.

This is the kind of book that you need to sit down with the younger people in your life. Read together and have a discussion and I think all parties concerned, young and old, will have a number of aha moments and realize the power of love and truth and justice and compassion that we take for granted that were all birthed out of a Christian framework and worldview so very very excited about people listening to the series and I can't imagine not buying this book. It is a great work, but strip will to order your copy of Jesus skeptic visit LivingontheEdge.org or call AAA 333-6003. Through this book. John reveals the convincing evidence for Jesus and opens our eyes to the tremendous influence, Christianity has had on history so the get your hands on Jesus skeptic by John Dickerson go to LivingontheEdge.org or call AAA 333-6003 hapless nurse Special offers will just before we close. I want to thank each of you making this program possible through your generous giving 100% of your gifts are going directly to the ministry to help Christians really live like Christians you found this teaching helpful, but you're not get on the team you consider doing that today to donate. Just go to LivingontheEdge.org Donate only up or give us a call at AAA 333-6003, let me thank you in advance for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do: selects time for everyone here. This is Dave saying thanks for listening to this edition of living OVA